pressing the mute button on a remote control. William’s teammates writhed in agony, with green foam bubbling out their mouths.
Yax bolted from his throne, barking commands to his royal guards.
“Balam! Behind you!” Teshna called out to William; she was jumping up and down and pointing behind him with the velocity of a woodpecker.
William turned just in time to see a Kinichna player coming at him with a short blade in his hand. They toppled down together, rolling on the hard surface of the ballcourt. Another man grabbed William’s necklace from behind, strangling him for a second. The necklace scraped across his face when the man pulled it free and took off with it. William felt his attacker with the dagger go limp. He scrambled back and saw the blade protruding from the man’s chest.
The guy who had stolen his necklace sprinted toward the northern entrance of the ballcourt. He managed only a few more steps before a dart zipped through the air with a fluttering sound, and impaled him through the side of his neck, sending him into a bloody plaster face plant. The necklace flew from his hands, skittering across the ballcourt.
The white owl streaked across the ballcourt and grabbed the bloodstone. The gem glowed in its talons as the owl whisked it over to Honac-Fey and dropped it into the ceramic jar in his hands. Honac-Fey raised the container over his head. “Ban kimil e lu’ um!” he said in a deep voice, and hurled the jar onto the ballcourt. It shattered with a splattering of a reddish-black liquid that dissolved like acid into the surface of the ballcourt.
A group of Dzibanche royal guards rushed in with spears, blocking the exits at both the northern and southern ends. They ordered the Kinichna players and Governor to surrender.
Knowing they could not escape, the five remaining ball players gave a collective nod and slit their throats, killing themselves to avoid capture.
The Kinichna Governor rushed across the ballcourt and grasped the bloodstone from the floor, holding it in his clenched fist. He raised the stone, showing it to the entire assembly, defiantly waving it at Yax. His arm began to tremble; it turned white. He seemed to be in severe pain, as he lost all the color in his face. With a blood-curdling screech, he fell over dead on the spot. The bloodstone slipped from his lifeless fingers to the ground.
A long moment of silence was broken by the King yelling, “Honac-Fey!” Yet the man with the diamond tattoo had run off.
The Serpent Priest went down to the ballcourt, his teeth clenched in anger. He took a moment to watch the guards chasing after Honac-Fey; the burning torches reflected the concern in his silver eyes. He turned and approached William. “Retrieve the bloodstone, Balam.”
“Are you crazy?” William asked. He was worried to touch it after seeing what it had just done to the Governor.
“It will not harm you. Pick it up and hold it so that all can see that you are its rightful master.”
William nodded, knowing that he could trust Priest Quisac. As he staggered toward the lifeless man in the yellow cape, William glanced at his fallen teammates; they were all dead, with green foam dripping off their faces. He looked up to find Betty in the stands and mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to her, realizing that she had saved his life by stopping him from drinking the poison.
He tossed off his helmet and yanked loose his shoulder and hip protectors; they fell to the ground behind him. He reached down, pulled the necklace free from the limp fingers of the dead man, and studied the gem that dangled before him. Its previous reddish hue had faded; it was nearly black. William grasped the bloodstone, carried it to the center of the ballcourt, and held it high over his head for all to see. Its glow radiated from between his fingers, and he felt a tingling sensation in his hand. He relaxed, for the bloodstone somehow soothed his aches and pains. It made him feel steadier on his feet.
Many in the assembly chanted his name, while others were in tears, or in a frozen state of shock from the alarming turn of events.
William opened his hand and stared at the bloodstone again. Its color had brightened a little, but lacked the vibrancy it used to have. An uncomfortable feeling crept over him. He figured he was just feeling sorry for those who had died on the ballcourt. But that wasn’t it, he realized. The feeling of distress was emanating from the bloodstone itself.
Chapter Six
William awoke to the sound of someone screaming, followed by a stampede of footsteps-sandals clacking against the plaster floor as people rushed about. He went out to investigate and discovered a large crowd gathered in the main courtyard. Everyone was transfixed by the tall ceiba tree, staring into the canopy of its branches overhead. William joined the growing group of nobles, servants, and guards. As he made his way to the tree, he wondered what had them so concerned.
Yax arrived at the courtyard a moment later with such a look of shock, that one might think someone was hanging by his neck from the tree. He rushed over to a gnarled old noble nearby; he had a nasty looking scar along his cheek and was missing his left ear. “What has happened, Subiac?” Yax asked.
“The Tree of Life is dying,” he said.
“That’s impossible,” Yax said, with tears forming in his eyes. He placed his hand against the ceiba tree’s trunk and stroked its thorny bark with the concern one would show for a sick pet.
Teshna entered the courtyard with the same horrified expression as all the others. “What is this?” she asked.
“It is the beginning of the end,” said the Serpent Priest, standing in the arched entrance of the western hallway.
Yax pulled himself from the tree and spun around. “What do you mean?” he asked.
Priest Quisac moved through the crowd, as the fallen leaves fluttered up around his feet. “A terrible curse has been set forth on our land by Honac-Fey.”
“What’s going on?” William asked.
“The Tree of Life has been poisoned, Balam,” Priest Quisac said. “She is dying.”
Teshna kneeled by the tree and ran her hand along the large buttress roots at its base. She smelled the sap on her fingers and looked up with hope. “But she is not dead yet,” Teshna said.
“No, not yet… but dying,” the Serpent Priest said with certainty.
Betty entered the courtyard and shuffled over to William with a grumpy look on her face. “Boy you guys sure like to get a head start on the day! I thought you’d all be sleeping in after yesterday’s shenanigans.” She noticed the mess of leaves all over. “What’s this, some kind of tree pruning party?”
Yax gave Betty a blank stare, not understanding her, and then turned back to Priest Quisac with his arms crossed, becoming impatient. “What is this curse?”
Priest Quisac regarded Yax with profound worry. “Honac-Fey used yesterday’s ceremonies against us. He cast a plague on our soils.”
“How?” Teshna asked.
Priest Quisac stomped around the large base of the ceiba tree, waving back the crowd of nobles that had gathered too close, as though he was shooing away pesky flies. He stared up the towering trunk, studying its empty branches, and then turned back to Yax. “Honac-Fey placed the bloodstone into a container with sacrificial blood, chanted the curse of the soil plague, and smashed it onto the northern cardinal point of the ballcourt. Did you not see how the cursed blood crawled into the earth?”
“Yeah, I saw that!” William said, understanding his words, while also seeing images of the blood dissolving into the ground as the Serpent Priest spoke.
Yax moved in close to the Serpent Priest and whispered, “What is the
“All the land that is sacred to your kingdom will wither and die, just as the Tree of Life dies before us now,” the Serpent Priest said.
“You mean the fields? The crops?” Teshna asked, blurting out her concerns louder than she should have. Nervous grumbles spiraled through the crowd about the crops being poisoned.
